Global Cards Cant Be Used To Buy Lottery, Barred Books

The Reserve Bank of India today said that international credit cards cannot be used on Internet for purchasing prohibited items like lottery tickets and banned books and magazines.

Nobody will be allowed to use global cards on the net to participate in sweepstakes and pay for call back services as foreign exchange cannot be drawn for such items.

It said that the international credit cards can be used on Internet for any purpose for which exchange can be purchased from an authorised dealer (AD) in India. The list of permissible items includes import of books, downloadable software and other things allowed under the Exim policy.

 

The central bank has not prescribed any aggregate monetary ceiling separately for international credit cards through Internet.

It also clarified that debit cards and ATM cards can be used for any purpose for which foreign exchange can be purchased from the ADs. The dealers are permitted to accept payment by debit to credit cards for exports made out of India.

In October 2002, the RBI had indicated that credit cards, ATM cards and debit cards are only different methods of payment and rules, regulations and directions issued under the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (Fema) are the same.

"This is a reiteration of the existing norms. Apart from lottery tickets, pornographic materials are sold on the net like hotcakes. The RBI has made it clear that the global card cannot be used to buy these prohibited items," said a banker.